The Indian rupee has been the worst-performing Asian currency over the past month. This last Tuesday the USD:INR rate reached 58.985 — an all-time high! This latest upswing in the USD:INR rate begun last month near 54.00 and was fueled by a combination of domestic and international factors (see below). The all-time high rate prompted an unexpected appearance in the market by the Indian government. Their central bank , the Reserve Bank of India, intervened directly into the FX market by selling U.S. dollars. The intervention was successful, as it is now trading lower; however, seldom does one bout of intervention by a central bank turn the tide on a currency. I’ll make a side bet that intervention will be needed again to prevent further rupee weakness.

The UK is one of the countries at the top of the list for companies looking to expand beyond the United States – and provides a host of incentives for direct foreign investment. Here’s a quick look at seven of these incentives – and you can learn more about the UK business climate and key expansion considerations by downloading our free “Guide to Business and Banking – UK”.

As fast-growing, innovation companies expand into foreign markets, letters of credit are seen as a key tool for facilitating sales transactions. In this interactive discussion, our experts explained the benefits of using letters of credit and how to most effectively structure transactions.

The Australian dollar has been caught in a tight trading range ($1.02-$1.06) for the past nine months, and appears to be going nowhere fast! The buying forces of offshore money - from both global investors in search of yield and speculators riding the momentum and "carry" trades - have been neatly balanced by the selling forces of Australia's weakening terms of trade*, falling commodity prices being the chief culprit. Of course, the biggest risk for Australia's economy and demand for its currency is China, it's primary trading partner - and China's economy is slowing! Our analysis below tries to cover the relevant factors in determining what's next in store for the Aussie.